By Rocco Clayfield, Founder & Director, GoldPaid Ltd · Published 6 August 2026
Why ask before you post, not after?
Once a parcel has gone, the practical balance of the transaction changes. Your items are in someone else’s building, and your options narrow to accepting, declining and waiting for a return, or complaining. Every question on this page is easy to ask while the gold is still in your drawer and awkward to ask afterwards, which is exactly why the asking should happen first.
There is a second reason to ask, and it is the better one. The answers matter, but the manner of answering matters almost as much. A reputable buyer fields all of these questions every week and answers them without friction. A buyer who goes vague, changes the subject to how high gold prices are, or leans on you to “just send it in and see”, has told you what you needed to know at a cost of one message. The full list of structural warning signs is in red flags when choosing a postal gold buyer; this page is the conversational version you use before any of that becomes relevant.
The ten questions, ready to copy and paste
Send these by WhatsApp, email or the buyer’s contact form. You do not need to ask them all in one go, and you do not need to soften them. They are ordinary due-diligence questions about a transaction involving your property.
- 1. How do you test my gold, and will the method be named on the offer?
- 2. Will I get a written, itemised offer before I have to decide anything?
- 3. Is anything melted, processed or removed from its setting before I accept?
- 4. If I decline, what does the return cost, and is it tracked and insured?
- 5. How long does the offer stay open, and what happens if I take a day to think?
- 6. How is payment made, and how quickly after I accept?
- 7. What is your registered company name and company number?
- 8. Which postal service should I use, and what cover applies to my parcel?
- 9. What happens if the parcel is lost or damaged in the post?
- 10. Where can I read your reviews, including the critical ones?
The sections below take the questions in groups, with what a good answer sounds like against what should make you stop. None of this requires expertise on your side. You are not judging the gold; you are judging the answers.
How do you test, and is the offer in writing?
Questions 1 to 3 establish whether a real valuation happens before your decision, or whether the “valuation” is a number that appears in your bank account. Testing should be by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), which reads purity without damaging the item, and the result should feed a written offer you can read before anyone touches anything irreversibly. What a written offer does and does not commit either side to is covered in what a no-obligation valuation actually means.
| Ask this | A good answer sounds like | A red-flag answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| How do you test my gold? | A named method, normally XRF, described as non-destructive, with purity shown on the offer itself. | Vagueness: “our experienced valuers assess every item”, acid testing as the only method, or no method at all. |
| Will the offer be written and itemised? | Yes, item by item, showing weight, purity, the rate applied and the figure, before you are asked to decide. | “We pay straight into your account the day your parcel arrives.” Payment before a written offer removes your decision, it does not speed it up. |
| Is anything melted before I accept? | Nothing is melted, processed or broken from its setting until you have accepted in writing. | Terms that allow processing “on receipt”, or a refusal to confirm either way. |
Not sure how any of this applies to your own items? Send a photo on WhatsApp and ask. We answer honestly, there is no obligation, and nothing is posted until you decide. Or call 07763 741067, 8am to 9pm, 7 days a week.
What happens if I say no?
Questions 4 and 5 are the pair that matter most, because the return terms are what make every other promise enforceable in practice. A buyer who returns declined items free, tracked and insured has priced in the possibility that you say no, which means the offer has to be good enough to stop you. A buyer who charges for returns, or hurries your decision, is relying on the friction of getting your own property back.
| Ask this | A good answer sounds like | A red-flag answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| What does a return cost if I decline? | Free, tracked and insured, with no valuation fee, so declining costs you nothing. | A return fee, return “at your own risk”, or return postage deducted from any future offer. |
| How long do I have to decide? | No countdown. If an offer lapses it is simply re-run against the current market rate, and taking a day to think is treated as normal. | A 24-hour deadline, a “bonus” for instant acceptance, or any clause treating silence as acceptance. |
How and when do I get paid?
The test on question 6 is specificity. A good answer names the payment method and states a window that starts from your acceptance, not from the parcel arriving. GoldPaid’s own answer, for comparison, is Faster Payments within one working hour of acceptance, usually within 30 minutes during working hours. You are not looking for that exact number from every buyer; you are looking for a buyer willing to commit to one.
| Ask this | A good answer sounds like | A red-flag answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| How is payment made, and how fast? | A named method (normally bank transfer) and a stated window measured from your written acceptance. | “Cheque in the post” as the default, no stated timescale, or money that arrives before you have accepted anything. |
Who am I actually dealing with?
Questions 7 and 10 take two minutes to verify independently, which is the point of asking them. A registered company name and number can be checked free at Companies House: you can see when the company was formed, who runs it, and whether it files what it should. A buyer handling your personal details should also appear on the ICO register. Reviews should live on an independent platform where the buyer cannot delete the bad ones, and the responses to critical reviews are usually more informative than the five-star ones.
| Ask this | A good answer sounds like | A red-flag answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| What is your registered company name and number? | Given without hesitation, and it matches Companies House when you check. | A trading name with no company behind it, no number, or “we have been in the trade thirty years” offered instead of one. |
| Where can I read your reviews? | A named independent platform you can browse yourself, critical reviews included, with visible responses. | Testimonials that exist only on the buyer’s own website, or review links that go nowhere. |
What cover applies in the post, and what if the parcel is lost?
Questions 8 and 9 are where honest buyers sound cautious and dishonest ones sound confident, which makes them unusually good filter questions. There is no such thing as unconditional insurance on a gold parcel. Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed is the standard service for valuables, and cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. A buyer who explains those conditions, and tells you to keep your proof-of-postage receipt, is describing the real world. A buyer who says “everything is fully insured, guaranteed” is describing a world that does not exist.
| Ask this | A good answer sounds like | A red-flag answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Which postal service should I use, and what cover applies? | A named service with its conditions stated plainly, for example Special Delivery Guaranteed, with cover that may be available up to £2,500 depending on method and cover level. | “Everything is fully insured, guaranteed”, with no service named and no cover level stated. Blanket insurance claims are a mark against a buyer, not for one. |
| What happens if the parcel is lost? | A plain description of the claims process, and an instruction to keep your receipt because it is the basis of any claim. | “That never happens.” Losses are rare, but a buyer who will not discuss them has not planned for them. |
The full claims process, including timescales and what Royal Mail asks for, is in what happens if Royal Mail loses your gold parcel.
Which answers are not red flags?
Fairness cuts both ways, and some answers that sound disappointing are what honesty sounds like. If a buyer gives you any of the following, treat it as a point in their favour rather than against.
- “The figure from your photos is indicative, not guaranteed.” No honest buyer commits to a value before inspecting the items. Weight, purity, hallmarks, stones and the market rate on the day all move the final number, and none of them can be settled from a photograph.
- “We will need photo ID.” Proportionate identity and ownership checks are normal practice for businesses buying precious metals. Being asked for ID is not an obligation to sell.
- “We pay below the spot price.” Every buyer does. Spot is the wholesale price of fine gold; refining, assay, handling and margin sit between it and any consumer rate, at every reputable firm. The arithmetic is in spot price versus scrap price.
- “This piece might do better at auction.” A buyer who points you away from their own service for a signed, antique or named-maker piece is showing you how they handle the conflict between their interest and yours. That is the single most reassuring answer on this page.
How does GoldPaid answer the same ten questions?
It would be odd to publish a question list and not sit the exam. Testing is by XRF assay, with purity and weight shown on a written, itemised offer, and nothing is melted or processed until that offer is accepted in writing. If you decline, the return is free, tracked and insured, and there is no valuation fee, so asking costs nothing. There is no countdown on offers; if the rate has moved by the time you decide, the figure is re-run rather than lapsed. Payment is by Faster Payments within one working hour of acceptance, usually within 30 minutes during working hours.
On identity: GoldPaid Ltd, company number 17382540, ICO registration ZC214216, both checkable on the public registers linked above. Reviews are on Trustpilot, where the rating is 4.7 at the time of writing; it is a young profile and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. On postage, we recommend Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, and cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. And if a piece looks like it belongs at auction rather than in a melt, the valuation says so.
Common questions
Do I really need to ask all ten questions?
No. If you only ask four, make them: how do you test, is the offer written and itemised, what does a return cost if I decline, and what is your company number. Those four expose most bad operators on their own. The other six close the remaining gaps.
Will asking questions annoy the buyer or affect my offer?
A reputable buyer answers these questions every week and the offer is built from weight, purity and the market rate, not from how compliant you seem. If asking ordinary questions changes how a buyer treats you, that reaction is the most useful information you will get from them.
What is the single most important question?
What does a return cost if I decline. Free, tracked, insured returns mean the buyer has to win your acceptance with the offer itself. Paid or at-your-own-risk returns mean the business model leans on the friction of getting your own property back.
Can I verify the answers independently?
Most of them. Company details are free to check at Companies House, data-protection registration on the ICO register, reviews on the platform the buyer names, and Royal Mail publishes its Special Delivery cover levels. An answer you cannot verify anywhere is worth less than one you can.
Is a buyer who only takes phone calls a red flag?
Not by itself; some good small firms are phone-first. The red flag is a refusal to put the answers in writing afterwards. Whatever is agreed on the phone, the offer, the return terms and the payment terms should all exist on paper or in a message you can keep.
What if I have already posted my gold without asking any of this?
Ask the questions now, before deciding on any offer, and keep your proof-of-postage receipt safe. You are still entitled to a written offer and to decline it. If something has already gone wrong, the practical steps and escalation routes are in our guide to what to do if something goes wrong selling gold by post.